Review: Kingdom of Embers

ABL Review at a Glance

• Title: Kingdom of Embers
• My Rating: 4
• Genre: Fantasy
• Format: audiobook*
• Publication Date: February 2, 2017
• Author: Tricia Copeland

Book Blurb

Her pale skin and weird diet make her a target at school. If only they knew the truth about her feeding habits…

Seventeen-year-old Alena Scott is tired of pretending to be something she’s not. As an outlawed vampire-witch hybrid, she’s forced to abide by the oppressive secrecy imposed by her Vampire Chancellor mother. But she’ll have to ignore the rules when she comes face-to-face with a handsome, full-grown version of her childhood imaginary friend.

Shocked that he recognizes her as his own pretend play pal, the two embark on a quest to solve the mystery of their fantasized companionship. And as they unravel their entwined destinies, Alena realizes she holds the key to a curse which could free them all—or condemn witchkind to eternal suffering.

Can Alena and her impossibly familiar partner reverse an ancient spell before they’re sent to a mortal grave?

Kingdom of Embers is the first book in the enthralling Kingdom Journals YA urban fantasy series. If you like intriguing characters, shadowy magic, and a fresh twist on modern vampire storylines, then you’ll love Tricia Copeland’s heart-stopping tale.

Buy Kingdom of Embers to embrace a prophetic fate today!

My Thoughts

This book really made me want to fight, mostly with myself, because I couldn’t figure out from one point to the next how I felt about it.

After the initial few chapters, I will say that I was skeptical. I wasn’t sure what was going on, who we were supposed to like and trust, who was the “bad guy,” or what world we were even in. Let’s just call it feeling lost.

Then, I just got into the story and let go of my tendency to try to figure out everything before it’s revealed to me. Once I gave in and let Tricia Copeland tell me her story, I was hooked.

I honestly believe, and I think I mentioned this in my bookstagram post, that Tricia Copeland was trying to show us the story through the eyes of thr protagonist, Alena Scott. Alena is being constantly asked to learn things, go places, and perform tasks without knowing why. When she asks why, she’s shut down hard by her somewhat aloof mother. So, as any normal teenager would, she rebels, breaks the rules, and tries to discover herself.

There are lots of twists and turns, which we make mostly blindly with Alena. None of us really know where any of this is going, but hang in there, because in the last few chapters, everything is revealed. Then changed.

The ending was what brought me to full on loving this book and I cannot wait for book two.

*Special thanks to Tricia Copeland and Jess the Audiobookworm, for providing a copy of Kingdom of Embers in exchange for an honest review.